Threats and menace: Pakistan's war on words

In Pakistan, the term "a war of words" can take on a
menacing dimension beyond the metaphorical. Words--written, spoken, or
reported--regularly land journalists in trouble, a very literal, physical
sort of trouble. Reporters have become accustomed to being threatened, and over
the years they've seen threats sometimes build to abductions, beatings, and
even death. Such violence seldom comes without a string of prior warnings.

The verbal threats come from all quarters, as do the
physical. Government agencies have been unable to protect journalists, and in
some cases, but definitely not all, they are among the prime suspects for
making the threats, and carrying out the abductions and beatings and even the
murders. For many months, CPJ has been writing
about threats and encouraging journalists, as an act of self-defense, to
make them widely known.

The murder of Saleem Shahzad at the
end of May 2011 is currently the bellwether, though there were many highly
publicized cases before his. And since Shahzad's death, there have been three
more targeted killings--Mukarram Khan Aatif
in January 2012, apparently at the hand
of a Taliban-related group; Javed Naseer Rind,
a Baloch journalist and political activist killed in November 2011, whose killers remain unidentified; and Faisal Qureshi, whose
staunchly partisan website The London
Post in October 2011 had run a scathing series of stories on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement shortly before men
slashed his throat in his apartment in Lahore. All three men had been
repeatedly threatened before they were killed.

is also resentful about its manipulation by the ISI [Inter-Services
Intelligence] viz drone policy, the Raymond
Davis affair and Memogate.
Question marks abound over its incompetence or complicity in the OBL [Osama bin
Laden] affair, especially following recent revelations by former [Director-General
of the] ISI Ziauddin Butt that General Pervez Musharraf "hid" Osama bin Laden
in Abbottabad. The murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, followed by threats to independent
journalists, is laid at the ISI's door. The ease with which terrorists have
breached military security, as in the attacks on GHQ, ISI offices, military
messes, Mehran Naval Base, and army officers etc also rankle. Finally, the
media is now speaking up and asking disturbing questions about the role of [Military
Intelligence] and related non-state actors in the disappearances and torture of
Baloch activists. Consequently, the media is loath to blindly follow the army's
"line" on any issue any more.

With the perpetrators still at large even after a full-scale,
six-month judicial inquiry, the Shahzad case continues to resonate, generating
a continuing war of words. On January 30, Human Rights Watch released a
statement headlined "Shahzad
Commission Results Marred by Free Ride for ISI." On Thursday, the Inter-Services
Public Relations directorate issued its rebuttal, "Human
Rights Watch (HRW) Report on Judicial Commission on Saleem Shehzad Murder Case
Not Correct," in which it launches an attack on Brad Adams, the executive
director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division. While Adams himself
"may have his head buried deep in the sand," the ISPR says, HRW's "press release
in question is part of a well-orchestrated and sinister media campaign, in
which HRW and the likes of Brad Adams and Ali Dayan Hassan [HRW's country
representative] may have been unwittingly drawn into."

And on the same day, in a blog in The Express Tribune headlined "We killed
Saleem Shahzad," liberal guest blogger Sana Saleem criticized the judicial report
itself:

Since the judicial inquiry has been unable to identify
people responsible, it is time we step forward. We killed Saleem Shahzad. If
you read the report carefully, it lays the blame on us. It blames us for
doubting the country's intelligence agencies for the murder of a journalist,
because of course, they
can never be held in doubt, let alone be responsible, or worse be at fault.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

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